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Review Of ReseaRch impact factOR : 5.7631(Uif) UGc appROved JOURnal nO. 48514 issn: 2249-894X vOlUme - 8 | issUe - 5 | feBRUaRY - 2019 __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ A STUDY OF ABHIDHAMMA PITAKA IN BUDDHIST PHILOSOPHY Kesarananda1 and Dr. M. Bharani2 1Ph.D. Research Scholar, Department of Philosophy, Annamalai University. 2Assistant Professor, Department of Philosophy, Annamalai University. ABSTRACT : A study of Abhidhamma Pitakain Buddhist Philosophy is to introduce the Buddha’s philosophy (Buddha’s Abhidhamma). In the teaching of Ti-Pitakas (Three Baskets), there are such as Vinaya-Pitaka(the code of monastic discipline), Sutta-Pitaka(the Discourse), Abhidhamma-Pitaka (the analytic doctrine of the Buddha’s philosophy). Abhidhamma-Pitakais the most difficult and the highest teaching of the Buddha, the third great division of the Pitaka. It is immense accumulation of efficiently organized, arranged and ordered Doctrines of the Buddha, speaking to the core of His educating. Abhidhamma means Higher Teaching or Special Teaching; it is unique in its abstruseness, analytical approach, immensity of scope and conduciveness to one’s liberation. By understanding the Buddhist philosophy and turning this study into personal by meditation and direct intellectual intuition of reality, then one can develop of insight into three characteristics of existence (impermanence, satisfactoriness, and non-self). KEYWORDS : Abhidhamma, Piṭaka, Philosophy, Paññatti. INTRODUCTION: Etymologically the term “Philosophy” is derived from the Greek term Philo & Sophia, which means “Love of Wisdom” (Philo Love + Sophia Wisdom). Philosophy is the oldest and original discipline. Philosophers call it as the mother of the entire first and the science of all science. In Sanskrit, Philosophy is known as “Darshana” which mean knowledge of reality. In Pali, Philosophy is known as Abhidhamma(AbhidhammaPitaka) which mean according to Pali, commentary Abhiis a Pali term, which means great, excellent, sublime, distinct, marvelous, preponderant, etc. The prefix ‘Abhi,’ like ‘Ati,’ is used in the sense of preponderance and distinction. Dhamma is called Abhidhamma, because it excels and is distinguished by several qualities from the other Dhamma. The word Pitaka means a receptacle a vessel or a basket. The word Pitakais usually translated as basket. There are three Pitakaor Baskets. They are Vinaya Pitaka, Sutta Pitaka, and AbhidhammaPitaka. The researcher is going to describe AbhidhammaPitakaor Buddhist philosophy here. Abhidhamma is very hard to translate this word into English actually. It is ultimate teaching in contrast to conventional teaching in Sutta (Discourse) Pitaka. In Sutta Pitakathe Buddha used conventional terms- like ‘I’, ‘you’, ‘a person’, and ‘a woman’. Without these conventional terms we cannot speak at all. We cannot communicate with other people at all ________________________________________________________________________________________ Journal for all Subjects : www.lbp.world 1 A STUDY OF ABHIDHAMMA PITAKA IN BUDDHIST PHILOSOPHY vOlUme - 8 | issUe - 5 | feBRUaRY - 2019 ________________________________________________________________________________________ because we live in this conventional world. So, in the Sutta Pitaka, the Buddha taught conventional terms. But in AbhidhammaPitakamost of the terms used are not conventional terms but terms of ultimate reality. They are different. They are almost no person, no man, and no woman in the AbhidhammaPitaka. We will find five aggregates, bases, element, Four Noble Truths and so on. Although the subject may be the same, the way of presentation is different. We are not a man. We are not a woman. We are five aggregates, so five aggregates are doing right now. A group of five aggregates are talking. Other five aggregates are listening. For example, like a car or motor bike, combined with so many things became a car or motor bike. So, people also combined with five aggregates became human being. That is something like Abhidhamma. The terms used are of ultimate realities and not of convention in Abhidhamma. These realities are taught in many different ways. The realities, those are accepted as realities, are four in number which called Paramattha Dhamma. Paramatthameans immutable or abstract things. Dhamma means which bear their necessary nature, or they are supported by conditions, or they are supported according to their necessary nature. So, there is four Paramatthas Dhamma or ultimate reality. Citta = Mind or consciousness of the senses or awareness of an object. Cetasika = Mental states or mental concomitants. Rūpa = Matter or material quality. Nibbāna = Salvation or extinction of defilements and suffering; absolute lasting peace. In these four, mind and matter are minutely analyzed. A person is composed of mind and matter. Mind is again composed of Citta which translated as consciousness, and Cetasikas which is translated mental factors. What we called mind is a group of two things - Citta and Cetasika. There are 89 or 121 types of minds (Cittas). Mind is divided into 89 or 121 types of consciousness. Mental factors (Cetasikas) are divided into 52. Mind is minutely analyzed and described in Buddha’s philosophy (Abhidhamma). Matter (Rūpa) is also treated in detail. There are 28 material properties taught in Buddha’s philosophy. There number or enumeration, their causes, and how they are grouped together in groups, how they arise, how they disappear in one given life. All these things are taught in Buddha’s philosophy (Abhidhamma-Pitaka). In Abhidhamma what are ultimate realities is taught, that is, consciousness (Citta), mental factors (Cetasika), matter (Rūpa), and Salvation (Nibbāna). Abhidhamma Piṭaka in Buddhist Philosophy According to Myanmar monk venerable Sayadaw U Thitila said ‘it is philosophy in as much as it deals with the most general causes and principles that govern all things.’ So, it can be called a philosophy. We can find in it causes and principles that govern all things. It is an ethical system because it enables one to realize the ultimate goal, Salvation (Nibbāna). There are no ethical teachings in Abhidhamma actually. There are no teachings like we are not to do this or that; we are to refrain from this. There are no such teachings in Abhidhamma. But when it describes consciousness, it begins with what is unwholesome. It goes to consciousness of sensuous sphere. Then it goes to higher states of consciousness called fine material-sphere consciousness. Then again it goes to immaterial-sphere types of consciousness. And ultimately it goes to superabundance consciousness. It goes from one spiritual stage to another. So, it can be call ethics. Because it deals with the working of the mind with thought processes and mental factors it can be called a system of psychology. It is really a system of psychology because it deals with mind, matter, consciousness, mental factors and material properties. Therefore,Abhidhamma is generally translated as psycho-ethical philosophy of Buddhism’. The researcher wants to call it just Abhidhamma. The researcher thinks that is better. Abhidhamma approach covers a wide field of study, comprising of scientific and manufactured strategies for examination, depicting and characterizing minutely the constituent pieces of totals, grouping them under very much arranged ________________________________________________________________________________________ Journal for all Subjects : www.lbp.world 2 A STUDY OF ABHIDHAMMA PITAKA IN BUDDHIST PHILOSOPHY vOlUme - 8 | issUe - 5 | feBRUaRY - 2019 ________________________________________________________________________________________ heads and all around masterminded frameworks, lastly setting out conditions in which they are identified with one another. Two Kinds of Truth Conventional Truth (Sammuti-Saccā) and Ultimate Truth (Paramattha-Saccā) are also recognized in the Abhidhamma according to which only four categories of things, namely: mind (consciousness), mental associations (concomitants), materiality and Salvation (Nibbāna) are classified as the ultimate truth; all the rest are viewed as obvious truth. When we utilize such articulations as "I", "you", "man", lady", "individual", "singular", we are talking about things which don't exist as a general rule. By utilizing such articulations about things which exist just in assignment, we are not lying; we are only an evident truth, making utilization of ordinary language, without which no correspondence will be conceivable. Yet, a definitive truth is that there is no "individual", individual" or "I" as a general rule. There exist just totals (Khandhas) made up of corporeality, mind (awareness) and mental concomitants. These are genuine in that they are not simply assignments; they really exist in us or around us. Two Kinds of Concept The conventional truth is also called Paññatti which is translated as concept. There are two kinds of concept (Paññatti). The first is called Nāma-Paññattiwhich means name or mind, mental phenomena. But here it means name. Therefore Nāma-Paññattimeans name concept. Name concept means just names given to objects. These names make things known. The word Paññatti has two meanings. One is active and the other is passive. Paññatti(concept) means something that makes some other thing known. When we say a car, the name a car makes the real car known. By the word car we know the real thing, a vehicle with four wheels and so on. So Paññatti here